Union thugs would be reined-in by GOP-backed update of anti-worker labor lawSen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Rep. Tim Scott, R-S.C., have introduced the Employee Rights Act. Among the major provisions of the ERA are several that represent fresh thinking about how to protect the rights of individual workers, and ensure unions' ability to represent their workplaces. For example, the ERA requires that all union members have the right to vote with a secret ballot on recertifying a union every three years. Replacing the current one-time representation vote with a secret-ballot vote every three years would mean labor leaders have to justify their actions regularly to their members. Such rigorous accountability would go far toward making union leaders more responsive to their members, while deterring the corruption that has marked much of the union movement's history.(full story at washingtonexaminer.com)The ERA would additionally require a majority vote by secret ballot before a strike could be called, thus ensuring that workers have a voice in deciding when they will hit the picket line and risk unemployment. The union would also have to obtain the written consent of every individual member before spending dues money on anything other than collective bargaining activities. Union members are split almost evenly between Democrats and Republicans, but union leaders overwhelmingly give their organizations' campaign contributions to Democrats. Under the ERA, union political donations would more accurately reflect the views of union members.
These ideas command impressive public support. According to an Opinion Research Corporation survey in August of nearly 2,500 nonunion households and more than 600 union households, huge majorities in both support such provisions. The ERA's three-year recertification requirement, for example, drew support from 84 percent of the nonunion households and 83 percent of the union households.
